Versions: 10.0.5+

Unlicensed Software Message

Every production (live URL) site must have a matching valid URL set in their license in the License Portal or the site will be disabled so only an 'unlicensed' nag message will display. Upon successful communication with the license servers, the site will create a .licensecache file in the \Images folder. Subsequent license checks will first review the .licensecache file in the \Images folder for validation. If no .licensecache file is found (or has been modified), then the license server will be contacted for verification and a new .licensecache file will be placed in the \Images folder upon successful validation.

The licensing check is based on the URL that shoppers use to visit your site, as displayed in the browser address bar. If a customer browses to www.someshop.com, the software verifies the license file created on the site is indeed licensed for www.someshop.com. If the URL displayed in the address bar doesn't match the URL in that license key (for example is www.someothershop.com, an IP address, etc), then the license server is contacted and validated with the licensed URLs. If the server check fails, then the 'unlicensed' message appears.

Versions: 8.0.1.4 , 9.1.0.1 - 10.0.4

Unlicensed Software Message

Every site must have a license key file in place or the front-end of the site will be disabled so only an 'unlicensed' nag message will display. The admin console will function while unlicensed, though the nag message will display there as well.

The licensing check is based on the URL that shoppers use to visit your site, as displayed in the browser address bar. If a customer browses to www.someshop.com, the software verifies the license file installed on the site is indeed licensed for www.someshop.com. If the URL displayed in the address bar doesn't match the URL in that license key (for example is www.someothershop.com, an IP address, etc) the 'unlicensed' message appears.

Guidelines

If you want your site to be accessible both with 'www' and without, make sure you enter 'www' in the key URL before you download the license from the AspDotNetStorefront license portal.

Sites can always be accessed at the IP address, however postbacks will trigger the 'Unlicensed Software' message. This will allow the site to be indexed or reached via IP for other reasons, but not used for checkout.

The Unlicensed Software message will only display to requests that hit the site at an invalid address.

Development and Staging Licenses

As long as the test URL is 'localhost' or has an 'aspdotnetstorefront' subdomain, you may have as many test sites as necessary, even if the test URLs vary. Simply copy the .licx file that you will generate below through the AspDotNetStorefront license portal to each of the site's /images folders, according to the the following instructions ( this step is not necessary for version 10.0.5+ ).

Generating & Installing License Keys

On the Licenses tab, click on the Name of the license you wish to manage, and a panel will expand showing you that license's details. Enter the domain(s) you want to generate a key for in the box(es) under Licensed Domains (if there are any empty slots available), and click the 'Set domain(s)' button. See the note about staging/testing sites above: you should only enter the live site's domains here, the key will automatically allow the site to run on valid test sites as explained above.

Enter the domain name in all lowercase characters. UPPER CASE characters in the domain name cause the license to fail. If the URL may have the "www." prefix used, be sure to include that. Both with www. and without will be licensed this way.

Verify that the .NET user account (typically IIS_IUSRS for Windows Server) has Read/Write/Modify access to the {root}\Images folder.

Versions 10.0.5+ please skip the next steps:

Click Retrieve License to download the license to your computer. Do not change the filename.

The license file must be uploaded to the {root}\Images folder. Be sure to keep the .licx extension intact.

Click “Refresh Store” in the upper right of the Admin Console.

Troubleshooting

If you have followed all of the steps above and continue to see the unlicensed message, or see the unlicensed message again after the site has been running licensed for some time, check the following things:

First and foremost, verify that your site is only being accessed at the domain(s) it is licensed for. IP addresses, domain aliases (that aren't licensed), etc should not be used. If necessary, most hosts are able to track how requests to your site are made, to help narrow down how your site is being accessed incorrectly.

Ensure that the user account your site is running under has the proper permissions to the {root}\Images folder on your site, as described in step 4 above. Your host can verify this for you if you don't have access to do so.

Verify the Information in the Configuration > About page in the admin console.

Verify that the domain(s) entered in the license file are correct: Look for typos, additional spaces before or after the entry, and no UPPERCASE characters.

There are two license rules when validating licenses, but only one will be run at a time depending on what URL is accessed. The staging license has a rule and the localhost/production licenses have a rule. If the site is accessed using staging (*.aspdotnetstorefront.*.*), then the localhost and production URLs will show as invalid in the admin Domains tab, and vice versa. Therefore if you are using a staging URL (*.aspdotnetstorefront.*.*) within a live site (production url), you will need to contact the Help Desk to request the staging URL be added to your license as a PRODUCTION url, so it can run along side the live URL without disruption.

Versions 10.0.5+ does not apply to the considerations below:

Verify that you only have a single .licx file in the {root}/images folder on your site, of the correct license file retrieved from your license portal.

Ensure that the license file is named properly. This will be a 'random' sequence of letters/numbers (a GUID) assigned by the AspDotNetStorefront site when you download the license file - be sure to remove any file 'copy' numbers at the end of the name such as (1). If the file has been renamed, you can retrieve the file from our site to obtain it again with the proper name.

If you are unable to determine the cause of the license failure, submit a full screen shot image of the admin console Configuration > About page (including the address bar showing the accessed URL) to our Help Desk for support.